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Hundreds of high school students across the Chicago area walked out of school Wednesday, joining a national movement of young people mobilizing in a passionate response to the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. High school students from Schaumburg, Oak Park, St....

A man charged in an alleged murder-for-hire plot against his parents said they were verbally abusive and were stifling his plans for a career as a blacksmith, according to DuPage County authorities. Joshua Miceli, 23, appeared briefly in court Wednesday where his bail was reset at $3 million for...

A retired suburban deputy police chief pleaded guilty Wednesday to the sexual assault of a teenage girl. Alan Bokowski, 61, of Crystal Lake, was sentenced to 4½ years in prison after pleading guilty in McHenry County court to sexual assaulting a child between the ages of 13 and 17. Bokowski spent...

A former Naperville resident who spent two decades imprisoned for arson and murder in the death of his mother-in-law was acquitted of those crimes Wednesday by a DuPage County judge who called the case “fatally compromised.” As Judge Liam Brennan was finishing reading his ruling in the retrial...

Two Chicago grade school students who wanted to play hooky from school Tuesday reported they had been kidnapped and dropped off at a Skokie office building, according to Chicago police. Chicago and Skokie police came to the building Tuesday afternoon in the 5500 block of West Touhy Avenue — near...

A man was shot when an argument broke out at a Steak 'n Shake drive-thru in west suburban Batavia on Tuesday, authorities said. Batavia police were notified of the shooting by a hospital when a man arrived to be treated for a gunshot wound about 6:25 p.m., Chief of Police Daniel Eul said in a statement....

Responding to questions about why he abruptly dropped charges against a former police officer accused in a drug-dealing scheme, the DuPage County state’s attorney revealed Tuesday that prosecutors learned of “criminal activity” by the key informant in the case. That discovery on the eve of trial...

A car stolen from west suburban Lyons ended up in a multi-vehicle crash in Chicago on Wednesday, police said. The car was taken about 7 a.m. from in front of a house in the 4600 block of Hawthorne Avenue, Lyons police Officer James Keating said. Half an hour later in Chicago, the vehicle was involved...

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson has at least one thing in common with President Donald Trump: She can’t stand CNN. “If we stop watching it, it stops being news,” Freeman-Wilson told an audience at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics about cable news’ focus on constant conflict. “I...

When the Dundee Township Rotary Club put out word they had scholarship money available for students planning to pursue vocational careers, they expected they'd receive at least a few applications. What they didn't expect was they'd receive none. "It dumbfounds me," said Trish Glees, a Rotary Club...

A Chicago-area man was arrested at a hotel in Georgia with a Florida girl whom he’d befriended online and then kidnapped, authorities said. Police said John Peter Byrns, 24, drove from his home in Hoffman Estates to Orlando, Fla., where he picked up the 11-year-old girl down the street from her...

Maddy Dittman was still running from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day when she paused to phone her old best friend Brittney Brown. Fourteen hundred miles north, at Rolling Meadows High School near Chicago, Brittney glanced at her phone and thought it was odd that Maddy was...

A Round Lake High School student was arrested for sending an allegedly threatening video on social media that prompted other students to report him to school officials Monday night. A letter was sent out to parents Monday night from Connie Collins, superintendent of Round Lake Area Schools Community...

Suburban sports

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Pete Koulianos. Koulianos was approved as the football coach at Highland during a Tuesday school board meeting. Koulianos, the coach at Hanover Central for the last three years, worked as an assistant at Highland through 2011. Koulianos replaces Trent Grider,...

It took 16 years for Debbie Gossett to have a team finally fulfill its talent and win the ultimate prize. That's how long she has been Portage's head coach. And, in her 16th season that was difficult for her personally, the Indians were the last one standing, defeating Michigan City 359-346 in...

Most read stories this hour

Cheers to life — seriously. When it comes to making it into your 90s, booze actually beats exercise, according to a long-term study. The research, led by University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas, tracked 1,700 nonagenarians enrolled in the 90+ Study that began in 2003 to explore impacts...

Seated between teenage survivors of the Florida school shooting, President Donald Trump said during an Oval Office listening session Wednesday that arming teachers and posting gun-toting veterans in schools could deter or stop school shooters. His comments came during an emotional meeting that...

Harvey Weinstein wants a judge to dismiss a federal sexual misconduct lawsuit against him and invoked the words and actions of Oscar-winning actresses including Meryl Streep in his defense. Lawyers for the disgraced film mogul said Tuesday in federal court in New York that the proposed class-action...

She’s a hashtag; she’s a meme. Chicago fashion blogger Hoda Katebi’s response to a WGN-TV news anchor who told her that she doesn’t “sound like an American” when she criticizes U.S. policy in the Middle East has been reported by media in Russia, England and Dubai. More than 10 million people have...

The parents of first lady Melania Trump have become legal permanent residents of the United States and are close to obtaining their citizenship, according to people familiar with their status, but their attorney declined to say how or when the couple gained their green cards. Immigration experts...

A man was arrested in Kankakee County after a 2-year-old boy was found dead, his throat deeply slashed, at his home in the Little Village neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, police said. Officers were called to the 2700 block of South Avers Avenue about 1:55 p.m. and found the child in a trash bag...

Billy Graham, the evangelist whose eloquent oratory and passion for Jesus attracted a worldwide following and made him one of the most influential and best-known religious figures of his time, was found dead Wednesday at his home in Montreat, North Carolina. He was 99. His death was confirmed by...

Jennifer Lawrence will wear what she wants to, gosh darn it. "Get a grip people," she wrote Wednesday on Facebook. "Everything you see me wear is my choice. And if I want to be cold THATS MY CHOICE TOO!" Lawrence's passionate post refers to a controversy surrounding an outfit she wore on Tuesday...

Kamala Harris, the Democratic senator from California, a former prosecutor, may one day be her party’s nominee for the presidency. And in the aftermath of the tragedy at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — where 17 students were killed by a madman with a gun — Harris said something...

Stephen Colbert would like to change the voting age. "Until we do something about guns, you can't vote if you're over 18," he said Tuesday night on "The Late Show." His quip references the campaigns for stricter gun control carried out by high schoolers in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were...

Noh Seon-Yeong's tears have mobilized the hosts of the Pyeongchang Olympics, marring the Games for a nation that prides itself on sportsmanship and civility. Noh, a long-track speedskater, cried in the infield of the Gangneung Oval Monday night after being humiliated by her teammates in the team...

Sometimes you can’t see what truly sparkles and shines for all the sequins and rhinestones. For those still obsessed with their hair and outfits, figure skating analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir’s take on Bradie Tennell’s short program to open NBC’s prime-time Olympics broadcast Tuesday bears...

Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky will give back his Olympic bronze medal after failing a drug test at the Pyeongchang Games, a spokeswoman for the Russian Curling Federation told state TV. Krushelnitsky tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, which is believed to help blood circulation,...

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was put on the defensive Wednesday by angry students, teachers and parents who are demanding stronger gun-control measures after the shooting rampage that claimed 17 lives at a Florida high school. One of those confronting the Florida senator at a CNN's "Stand Up" town...

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressed bewilderment when he learned reliever Brandon Morrow discussed how the Cubs were dissected in the 2017 National League Championship Series. “He’s already giving away our secrets?” Roberts said Tuesday with a tone of amusement. But the Cubs’ big weakness was...

You might not have noticed what Dinesh D’Souza had to say about athletes on Tuesday. Like many others, you might have been reviled by the conservative’s author tweets mocking student protesters, some of them survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, to notice anything else. “Worst news...

Spilling out wrenching tales of lost lives and stolen security, students and parents appealed to President Donald Trump to set politics aside and protect America's schoolchildren from the scourge of gun violence. Trump listened intently to the raw emotion and pledged action, including the possibility...

A 30-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting the boyfriend of his children's mother last week in Gary, records show. Jason Ryan Burgess, of Gary, was charged this week with murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting on Feb. 15, according to Lake County court records. Officers...

Erik Killmonger's reign on the Wakandan throne was short-lived, but he is now the undisputed king of MCU antagonists. There's Killmonger, and then there's everybody else. There was a time when debating the greatest Marvel Cinematic Universe villain of all time before "Avengers: Infinity War's"...

You could be suffering from thumb joint pain, but you still do not know what exactly brings about this painful condition to your body; this article will show you five of the main causes of this condition. Thumb joint pain will make your every day activity difficult. The obvious question you need...

Welcome, Parkland shooting survivors, to the ugly world of politics in 2018. In the aftermath of last week's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, some of the most powerful testimonies have come from the teenagers who survived the rampage. They have repeatedly detailed their harrowing experience...

Hundreds of high school students across the Chicago area walked out of school Wednesday, joining a national movement of young people mobilizing in a passionate response to the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. High school students from Schaumburg, Oak Park, St....

Flu has killed 22 more children, the most reported since the respiratory virus began slamming the country in the fall, according to a government report released Friday. The total number of flu-related pediatric deaths is now at least 84 nationwide. But other indicators from the Centers for Disease...

When it comes to guns, it often appears as though liberals and conservatives are speaking different languages. Liberals express their horror at each new mass shooting and demand government action, while conservatives call for “thoughts and prayers” and insist on respect for the Second Amendment....